Syskoplan Reply: Setting a New Standard for SAP Competency

Syskoplan Reply

Rick Place, Partner, Syskoplan ReplyRick Place, Partner
Founded in 2002, Enowa, LLC, recently rebranded as Syskoplan Reply (Syskoplan), is a member of Reply SpA global network of specialized technology companies that focuses on business process consulting. Reply specializes in the design and implementation of technology and software solutions and is most widely known as Syskoplan Reply for SAP competencies.

In 2021, Enowa joined the Reply network as Syskoplan Reply to enhance Reply’s focus on SAP and drive the U.S. SAP competency. It delivers business and SAP consulting globally with a strong focus on the U.S. and European markets. The SAP team has approximately 900 consultants with English, German, and Italian as the most common languages. They focus widely on the manufacturing industry, including continuous, repetitive, and discrete and chemicals, food, automotive, life science, consumer products, building products and other industries.

In an interview with CIO Applications, Rick Place, the Partner at Syskoplan Reply, shares his insights on how the company leverages its expertise and experience to provide exceptional consulting services to clients.

Building a Unique Niche in the SAP Consulting Space

Keeping with our U.S. tagline, “Definitely Different,” we adopt a unique partnership approach in all our client engagements. At Syskoplan Reply, we find that open and regular contribution to the SAP ecosystem with fact-based SAP possibilities drives a significant difference. This equates to a team passionate about delivering value-based results and the best outcomes for clients and industry partners. The team members are well-versed in approaching each client by putting themselves in the shoes of a business user and have expertise in interacting with businesses, from manufacturing teams to executives.

Having identified that each facet of an organization has different needs, we, at Syskoplan Reply, ensure an end-to-end process delivers the necessary outputs to drive efficiency and accurate reporting for operations planning, financial reporting, and key decisions.

We recently provided significant value in educational content and webinars by meeting clients and prospects to discuss their S/4HANA migration needs in partnership with America’s SAP User Group (ASUG). We navigated conversations with industry leaders to understand how migrating to S/4HANA can drive success while leveraging SAP processes. We partner routinely with SAPinsider, delivering educational content as industry experts at their group events.

We provide many companies with strategic guidance across ERP, analytics, process mining, and execution. We showcased a successful corporate performance management project with Glatfelter, an engineered material manufacturer, that drove conversations on how SAP can be used to consolidate financial across any software platform with a plug-into Microsoft Excel.

Responsive to Market Challenges in Collaboration with Reply

Technology is rapidly evolving, and with a clean ERP as the baseline for expansion into more automation, AI and IoT will shape the future and drive value to clients’ operations. We will introduce other Reply capabilities as we expand beyond SAP offerings to overcome the challenges of justifying a clean, global instance of SAP. This rapid innovation allows organizations to leverage technology for competitive advantage but comes with a set of challenges. As a result, they need a reliable partner capable of navigating software features and functions to deliver the right results.

Syskoplan Reply understands the challenges that face organizations while implementing new technologies. As a result, we base our services portfolio around risk mitigation and long-term success. For us, our people, culture, and focus on clients’ industry specifics are critical success factors.

With those three differentiators, we address the biggest challenge faced today with SAP’s move to the cloud; Why would I move to S/4HANA with a RISE subscription?

SAP’s RISE program with Syskoplan Reply’s execution is designed to move companies from on-premise licensing to a subscription model on the cloud—Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud —managed through one contract with SAP with functional support from Syskoplan Reply. Our clients struggle with SAP’s drive toward the cloud and its implications until we define a sensible approach, risk mitigation and cost justification.

A cloud migration requires shifting from on-premise thinking to cloud processes defined by years of best practices support by Syskoplan Reply knowhow. We have business process experts explaining the benefits of harmonized processes, consistent data management, and the subsequent output to business users. If we start a project by spending focused time upfront, we can deliver a solid, actionable plan with proper trusted communication and buy-in from the user community.

Driving Excellence; the Recipe for Success

We’re certified in many focus areas with a successful track record of 20 years in sharing knowledge with the SAP ecosystem. Reply has many certifications with SAP, including many hours of learning educational material with continuous testing. These certifications help us achieve authorization in SAP products and solutions like RISE and S/4HANA. Leveraging the knowledge and translating it for clients’, we define a project with predictable and measurable results. It is our recipe for success.

Together with Reply, we won the SAP Global Pinnacle Award for Customer Excellence, which recognizes client satisfaction based on recommendations from SAP, customer feedback, and performance indicators. This is a true accolade from SAP, their partners, and our clients.

A Real-Life Illustration of Excellence

A leading specialty paper manufacturer in North America, Pixelle Specialty Solutions provides various quality solutions to businesses across the continent. Weighed down by legacy ERP framework and redundant processes, they needed an automated and integrated approach to maximize their full potential.

With a new end-to-end solution and Syskoplan Reply’s support, Pixelle has embraced an out-of-the-box approach with standardized functionality, leading to massive savings on time and labor costs explained in a recent SAP case study, including

1. Fewer systems, streamlined operations across smaller number of apps
2. Extensive cost savings in support staff and systems management areas
3. Consolidated, cleansed, and harmonized data
4. Improved visibility into plant maintenance and data management across all facilities
5. More efficient organization, better production capabilities, and greater profitability

Differentiating Factors that Give a Competitive Edge

People are our greatest asset. Our consultants have an average of 15-years of SAP and business process experience, which enable us to easily align with our clients. We believe their SAP skills, business process expertise, and communication capabilities are vital in successfully implementing software for business transformation. Their expertise is in helping clients ensure successful system go-live with streamlined functionality, resulting in a true business transformation. A result of our team’s business process expertise is its ability to deliver across multiple business functions and SAP modules. This allows us to deliver projects with small teams, which significantly contributes to reducing risk and enabling a more intimate relationship with customers.

Our clients place their trust with Syskoplan Reply, and that is the great compliment. We value our commitment to clients and the ecosystem and look forward to extending our partnership further with existing and future clients

Another key differentiator is our culture. We adapt to our clients individually from a commercial and project delivery perspective. Our passion for work, caring for our customers, and enjoying what we do have resulted in an extremely low attrition rate. It’s not standard for system integrators to deliver a business transformation over months or years with the same team, but at Syskoplan Reply, it’s a part of our design.

We know what we are good at and are always candid about this information. Regarding our service offerings, we consistently center them around the customer’s needs. A firm understanding of our strengths, being honest with customers, and having an empathetic approach to their needs creates a strong foundation for a long-term partnership.

Recognition for Future Endeavours

As we continue to grow with our clients and engage more in the Reply network, we’re joining forces with our European counterparts to build a global brand under Syskoplan Reply. We’re excited to show clients how we can build on our last two decades with even more power, commitment, and talent with Syskoplan Reply.

Clients request our honest input on what is needed in their business operations and SAP landscape. As such, we are also an SAP license reseller which will make supporting their end-to-end needs easier and continue to enrich our partnership.

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